BEGONIA METALLICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 11

BEGONIA METALLICA.

A USEFUL PLANT FOR AMATEURS. During my earliest gardening days this plant enjoyed a wide popularity. No garden of any importance was without a good batch of plants in pots, varying in size from long toms to those eight or ten inches across. To-day it is rarely seen in any -but the largest establishments. Possibly the prevailing popularity of the tuberose variety is largely responsible for this, but surely there is room for both more especially among the small grower who is keen on having plants which, in addition to harmonising with almost every plant he is likely to cultivate in ■his small greenhouse, will at all seasons of the year bq of value for any form of indoor decoration.

Let me introduce this old friend of mine to readers of Amateur Gardening, and I feel su e they will not be sorry, but in their hearts thank me for the introduction. Begonia metalliea has leaves of a large size, of a glossy brown colour, and, whether in the baby or full-grown stage, strikingly handsome in appearance. For six or eight months of the year it may be depended upon to yield an unbroken succession of stout spikes of waxy flowers, small, white, tinged with pale pink. If cut with a good length of stem these associate well with many other indoor or outdoor flowers, but I prefer a loose arrangement without other flowers or foliage being added. Cultivation is most simple, needing neither a special soil nor exacting temperature. Tn my time I have grown grand specimens in what is termed stove temperature also others equally good in structures from which frost was barely excluded. It is a real good “ room ” plant, standing gas, oil, or tobacco fumes’far better than many more costly, yet less decorative, plants. Some years back in a very dry summer I filled a large circular bed with plants from. a 4in pot; these, associated ‘ with cannas and hyacinth candicans, made a very bold display, winning favourable comments from all visitors.

It is quite an easy matter to Increase one’s stock, even without fire heat; shoots about three inches long inserted in very light, sandy soil soon make roots. Even when the plants have only filled the smallest-sized pots with roots, they ate useful in many ways; while plants in 3in or sin pots have on many occasions helped me to put up prize-winning groups at horticultural shows.—Correspondent in Amateur Gardening.